I travelled to Dimock, PA, several weeks ago to see for myself what was going on at my neighbors to the north. I was astounded to see gas drilling pads in many farm pastures. On several sites, cows were being pastured and fed adjacent to the pads. I had read about cows being quarantined in Tioga County after they were suspected of drinking polluted flowback water. In Washington County cows died after exposure to drilling fluids. At Dunkard Creek, where all aquatic life died from an algae bloom caused by drilling, beef cows were photographed standing in orange-tainted water. I have decided not to eat beef any more. Every time I look at a steak, I see those cows standing next to a drill site.

My new discoveries opened my eyes to other concerns. How about the farmers who were present at the farmers’ markets? Had they leased their lands? If I knew for sure they had, I bypassed their stands. I am also boycotting a restaurant next to a drill pad in Fairmount Township.

I began searching for alternative food sources and discovered the joys of shopping at the Lands at Hillside. The folks who bought this wonderful farm from the old coal barons opted not to lease these lands. Hooray! Now I buy hormone-free milk, free range eggs, Hillside Gold butter, fresh ice cream, and other goodies. Life is good, and my tummy agrees.

If this evil and blatant usury of our land is not stopped by our elected and sworn representatives by listening to reason, constituents, and the constitution – if they wimp out on their duty to make sure anything done to this state is done right or not at all; if this illegal attack supplants democracy – then democracy will be wrestled back, one way or another.

The beast is circling and beginning to take bites, a variance here, a clearing there. Soon will come a train of trucks carrying the rig. Like a missile on parade in Red Square, it might as well have a hammer and sickle on its side. The bit will drive into the bone of Mother Earth and leave her contaminated. This will happen in front of those who allow it.

Those who refuse to sign a lease will soon be tied down and forced to witness the rape. If big gov and big gas have their way, eminent domain will be granted to those who pipe the gas. You thought you could make a stand? Not in Corporate America (the former United States).

My daughter lives in West Virginia near the PA border. Here are some articles she sent to me about a fish kill on a creek 30 MILES LONG! The kill was caused by a gas company allowing fracking fluid into abandoned mines.
This happened last September.

www.post-gazette.com
A bloom of toxic alien algae is being blamed for killing thousands of fish, mussels and other forms of aquatic life in more than 30 miles of Dunkard Creek along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border this month.

wvgazette.com
Three weeks ago, fish started dying in Dunkard Creek, a scenic stream that winds along the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border in Monongalia County

www.marcellus-shale.us
Dunkard Creek experienced a large fish kill in 2009 from golden algae and high chloride water.
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Article I of the Pennsylvania State Constitution, Sec. 27:

The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.

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Energy Independence???? Look up in the fracking sky!!!!!
Pennsylvanians should be manufacturing and installing solar, wind, geothermal and the like. We ought to make each home as sustainable and independent as possible.
We need to retool America. And it ought to start right here.

"However, when we realized all our neighbors had signed and we were surrounded by leased land – we finally gave in and signed. Now seeing what has happened I would gladly return the money if they would pack up and leave. I consider it dirty money."
- Susquehanna County lessor